The Application of Design of Experiments as Support Tool for the Development of a Driveshaft Component Manufacturing Process

In the automotive industry it is perceived a continuous decrease of time for the launches of new vehicles, as well as an increasing of customer expectations that the new launches will not present problems due to lack of manufacturing process adjustments. Besides the investments required for technology updating of manufacturing process it is also necessary to use techniques and work methodologies to help the process parameters optimization. Among the techniques available in the literature, the Design of Experiments (DOE) is a useful tool for product development steps and for product and process improvements. This paper presents the application of DOE as a support tool to improve the manufacturing process of a Driveshaft outboard joint in order to reduce the dimensional variability on its spline. For the case study a generic model for industrial experiments planning and conduction has been followed. As result of the case study an optimization of the manufacturing process parameters that reaches an increase of the process reliability and quality improvement is reported.